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临床与转化肝病杂志(英文版)
临床与转化肝病杂志(英文版)

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临床与转化肝病杂志(英文版)/Journal Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology
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    CircTUBD1: A Novel Circular RNA Molecule asa Therapeutic Target in Radiation-induced Liver Fibrosis

    Catherine Yujia GuTerence Kin Wah Lee
    571-573页

    SGLT-2 Inhibitor and GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Treatment for Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Is Their Combination the Optimal Treatment Option?

    Dimitrios PatouliasTheodoros Michailidis
    574-576页

    Overexpression of Hepcidin Alleviates Steatohepatitisand Fibrosis in a Diet-induced Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

    Hui ChenWenshan ZhaoXuzhen YanTao Huang...
    577-588页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Iron overload can contribute to the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Hepcidin (Hamp), which is primarily synthesized in hepatocytes, is a key reg-ulator of iron metabolism. However, the role of Hamp in NASH remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the role of Hamp in the pathophysiology of NASH. Methods:Male mice were fed a choline-deficient L-amino acid-defined (CDAA) diet for 16 weeks to establish the mouse NASH model. A choline-supplemented amino acid-defined (CSAA) diet was used as the control diet. Recombinant adeno-asso-ciated virus genome 2 serotype 8 vector expressing Hamp (rAAV2/8-Hamp) or its negative control (rAAV2/8-NC) was administered intravenously at week 8 of either the CDAA or CSAA diet. Results: rAAV2/8-Hamp treatment markedly decreased liver weight and improved hepatic steatosis in the CDAA-fed mice, accompanied by changes in lipogenesis-related genes and adiponectin expression. Compared with the control group, rAAV2/8-Hamp therapy attenuated liver damage, with mice exhibiting reduced histological NAFLD inflammation and fibrosis, as well as lower levels of liver enzymes. Moreover, α-smooth muscle actin-positive acti-vated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and CD68-postive mac-rophages increased in number in the CDAA-fed mice, which was reversed by rAAV2/8-Hamp treatment. Consistent with the in vivo findings, overexpression of Hamp increased adi-ponectin expression in hepatocytes and Hamp treatment inhibited HSC activation. Conclusions: Overexpression of Hamp using rAAV2/8-Hamp robustly attenuated liver stea-tohepatitis, inflammation, and fibrosis in an animal model of NASH, suggesting a potential therapeutic role for Hamp.

    Validation of Non-invasive Fibrosis Scores for Predicting Advanced Fibrosis in Metabolic-associated Fatty LiverDisease

    Xiaoning ChenGeorge Boon-Bee GohJiaofeng HuangYinlian Wu...
    589-594页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a newly proposed terminology from 2020; yet, the applicability of conventional noninvasive fi-brosis models is still unknown for it. We aimed to evaluate the performance of conventional noninvasive fibrosis scores in MAFLD. Methods: The NHANES 2017-2018 datasets were used to compare the performances of different non-invasive fibrosis scores in MAFLD, including the aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to platelet ratio index (APRI), body mass index (BMI)-AST/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio and diabetes score (BARD), fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4), and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS). Moreover, Asian patients with biopsy-proven MAFLD were enrolled to further validate the findings. Results: A total of 2,622 participants in the Na-tional Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cohort and 293 patients with MAFLD in the Asian cohort were included. Patients in the Asian cohort had a lower BMI and higher liver enzymes (p<0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of NFS was the largest in the NHANES cohort and Asian cohorts (0.679 and 0.699, respectively). The AUROC of NFS was followed by APRI, FIB-4, and BARD in the NHANES cohort (0.616, 0.601, and 0.589, respectively). In the Asian cohort, the AUROC of APRI, FIB-4, and BARD for predicting advanced fibrosis were 0.625, 0.683, and 0.615, respectively. The performance of FIB-4 was better in the Asian cohort than that in the NHANES cohort. Conclusions: NFS is better for predicting advanced fibrosis in MAFLD. FIB-4 can be an al-ternative choice for MAFLD with high liver enzymes when NFS is unavailable. Novel efficient noninvasive fibrosis scor-ing systems are highly required for patients with MAFLD.

    Sex-specific Cutoff Values of Visceral Fat Area for Lean vs.Overweight/Obese Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Asians

    Sunyoung LeeKyoung Won KimJeongjin Lee
    595-599页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Visceral obesity is a risk factor for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We investigated sex-specific optimal cutoff values for visceral fat area (VFA) associated with lean and overweight/obese NAFLD in an Asian population. Methods: This retrospective study includ-ed 678 potential living liver donors (mean age, 30.8±9.4 years; 434 men and 244 women) who had undergone ab-dominal computed tomography (CT) imaging and liver bi-opsy between November 2016 and October 2017. VFA was measured using single-slice abdominal CT. NAFLD was eval-uated by liver biopsy (≥5% hepatic steatosis). Receiver op-erating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine cutoff values for VFA associated with lean (body mass index [BMI] <23 kg/m2) and overweight/obese (BMI ≥23 kg/m2) NAFLD. Results: Area under the curve (AUC) values with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for VFA were 0.82 (95% CI, 0.75–0.88) for lean and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.69–0.79) for over-weight/obese men with NAFLD. The AUC values were 0.67 (95% CI, 0.58–0.75) for lean and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.62–0.80) for overweight/obese women with NAFLD. The cutoff values for VFA associated with lean NAFLD were 50.2 cm2 in men and 40.5 cm2 in women. The optimal cutoff values for VFA associated with overweight/obese NAFLD were 100.6 cm2 in men and 68.0 cm2 in women. Conclusions: Sex-specific cutoff values for VFA may be useful for identifying subjects at risk of lean and overweight/obese NAFLD.

    A K-nearest Neighbor Model to Predict Early Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Resection

    Chuanli LiuHongli YangYuemin FengCuihong Liu...
    600-607页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Patients with hepatocellular carci-noma (HCC) surgically resected are at risk of recurrence;however, the risk factors of recurrence remain poorly un-derstood. This study intended to establish a novel machine learning model based on clinical data for predicting early re-currence of HCC after resection. Methods: A total of 220 HCC patients who underwent resection were enrolled. Clas-sification machine learning models were developed to predict HCC recurrence. The standard deviation, recall, and preci-sion of the model were used to assess the model's accura-cy and identify efficiency of the model. Results: Recurrent HCC developed in 89 (40.45%) patients at a median time of 14 months from primary resection. In principal compo-nent analysis, tumor size, tumor grade differentiation, por-tal vein tumor thrombus, alpha-fetoprotein, protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-Ⅱ(PIVKA-II), aspartate aminotransferase, platelet count, white blood cell count, and HBsAg were positive prognostic factors of HCC recurrence and were included in the preoperative model. After compar-ing different machine learning methods, including logistic re-gression, decision tree, na?ve Bayes, deep neural networks, and k-nearest neighbor (K-NN), we choose the K-NN model as the optimal prediction model. The accuracy, recall, preci-sion of the K-NN model were 70.6%, 51.9%, 70.1%, respec-tively. The standard deviation was 0.020. Conclusions: The K-NN classification algorithm model performed better than the other classification models. Estimation of the recurrence rate of early HCC can help to allocate treatment, eventually achieving safe oncological outcomes.

    Extracellular Polysaccharide from Rhizopus nigricansInhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma via miR-494-3p/TRIM36 Axis and Cyclin E Ubiquitination

    Haixiong YanXiaoQian MaZe MiZhenhu He...
    608-619页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: This study was designed to uncov-er the mechanism for extracellular polysaccharide (EPS1-1)-mediated effects on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) devel-opment. Methods: HCC cells were treated with EPS1-1, miR-494-3p mimic, sh-TRIM36, and pcDNA3.1-TRIM36. The levels of miR-494-3p and TRIM36 were measured in nor-mal hepatocytes, THLE-2, and HepG2 and HuH7HCC cell lines, along with the protein expression of cyclin D/E and p21. The proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis of HCC cells were assayed. The interactions between miR-494-3p and TRIM36, and between TRIM36 and cyclin E were assessed. Finally, the expression and localization of TRIM36 and cyclin E were monitored, and tumor apoptosis was detected, in tumor xenograft model. Results: EPS1-1 suppressed HCC cell proliferation and cyclin D/E expression and promoted apoptosis and p21 expression. miR-494-3p was upregulated and TRIM36 was downregulated in HCC cells. Transfection with miR-494-3p mimic or sh-TRIM36 facilitated HCC cell proliferation and the expression of cyclin D/E protein but they inhibited apoptosis and p21 expression in the pres-ence of EPS1-1. Overexpression of TRIM36 further con-solidated EPS1-1-mediated inhibition of HCC proliferation, cyclin D/E, and the promotion of apoptosis and p21 expres-sion. Those effects were reversed by miR-494-3p overex-pression. TRIM36 was a target gene of miR-494-3p, and TRIM36 induced cyclin E ubiquitination. EPS1-1 suppressed cyclin E expression, promoted TRIM36 expression and tu-mor apoptosis, all of which were abrogated by increasing the expression of miR-494-3p in vivo. Conclusions: EPS1-1 protected against HCC by limiting its proliferation and sur-vival through the miR-494-3p/TRIM36 axis and by inducing cyclin E ubiquitination.

    Hepatic Arterioportal Fistulas: A Retrospective Analysis of 97 Cases

    Bendaxin CaoKe TianHejun ZhouChenjie Li...
    620-626页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Hepatic arterioportal fistulas (HAPFs) are abnormal shunts or aberrant functional con-nections between the portal venous and the hepatic arte-rial systems. Detection of HAPFs has increased with the ad-vances in diagnostic techniques. Presence of HAPFs over a prolonged period can aggravate liver cirrhosis and further deteriorate liver function. However, the underlying causes of HAPFs and the treatment outcomes are now well character-ized. This study aimed to summarize the clinical character-istics of patients with HAPFs, and to compare the outcomes of different treatment modalities. Methods: Data of 97 pa-tients with HAPFs who were admitted to the Second Xiang-ya Hospital between January 2010 and January 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic information, clinical manifestations, underlying causes, treatment options, and short-term outcomes were analyzed. Results: The main cause of HAPF in our cohort was hepatocellular carcinoma (78/97, 80.41%), followed by cirrhosis (10/97, 10.31%). The main clinical manifestations were abdominal distention and abdominal pain. Treatment methods included transcath-eter arterial embolization (n=63, 64.9%), surgery (n=13, 13.4%), and liver transplantation (n=2, 2.1%); nineteen (19.6%) patients received conservative treatment. Among patients who underwent transcatheter arterial embolization, polyvinyl alcohol, lipiodol combined with gelatin sponge, and spring steel ring showed comparable efficacy. Conclusions:Hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis are common causes of HAPFs. Transcatheter arterial embolization is a safe and effective method for the treatment of HAPFs, and polyvinyl alcohol, lipiodol combined with gelatin sponge, and spring steel ring showed comparable efficacy in our cohort.

    Spindle and Kinetochore-associated Family Genes are Prognostic and Predictive Biomarkers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

    Chenhui CaiYing ZhangXu HuSizhen Yang...
    627-641页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignant tumors. Spindle and kinetochore-associated (SKA) family genes are essential for the maintenance of the metaphase plate and spindle checkpoint silencing during mitosis. Recent studies have indicated that dysregulation of SKA family genes induces tumorigenesis, tumor progression, and chemoresistance via modulation of cell cycle and DNA replication. However, the differential transcription of SKAs in the context of HCC and its prognostic significance has not been demonstrated. Methods: Bioinformatics analyses were performed using TCGA, ONCOMINE, HCCDB, Kaplan-Meier plotter, STRING, GEPIA databases. qRT-PCR, western blot, and functional as-says were utilized for in vitro experiments. Results: We found remarkable upregulation of transcripts of SKA family genes in HCC samples compared with normal liver samples on bioinformatics analyses and in vitro validation. Inter-action analysis and enrichment analysis showed that SKA family members were mainly related to microtubule motor activity, mitosis, and cell cycle. Immuno-infiltration analysis showed a correlation of all SKA family genes with various immune cell subsets, especially T helper 2 (Th2) cells. Tran-scriptional levels of SKA family members were positively as-sociated with histologic grade, T stage, and α-fetoprotein in HCC patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve analy-sis demonstrated a strong predictive ability of SKA1/2/3 for HCC. Increased expression of these SKAs was associated with unfavorable overall survival, progression-free survival, and disease-specific survival. On Cox proportional hazards regression analyses, SKA1 upregulation and pathological staging were independent predictors of overall survival and disease-specific survival of HCC patients. Finally, clinical tissue microarray validation and in vitro functional assays revealed SKA1 acts an important regulatory role in tumor malignant behavior. Conclusions: SKA family members may potentially serve as diagnostic and prognostic markers in the context of HCC. The correlation between SKAs and immune cell infiltration provides a promising research direc-tion for SKA-targeted immunotherapeutics for HCC.

    Diagnostic Accuracy of the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient for Microvascular Invasion in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Meta-analysis

    Yuhui DengJisheng LiHui XuAhong Ren...
    642-650页
    查看更多>>摘要:Background and Aims: Microvascular invasion (MVI) is a major risk factor for the early recurrence of hepatocel-lular carcinoma (HCC) and it seriously worsens the prog-nosis. Accurate preoperative evaluation of the presence of MVI could greatly benefit the treatment management and prognosis prediction of HCC patients. The study aim was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the apparent dif-fusion coefficient (ADC), a quantitative parameter for the preoperative diagnosis MVI in HCC patients. Methods:Original articles about diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and/or intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) conducted on a 3.0 or 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system indexed through January 17, 2021were collected from MED-LINE/PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. Methodological quality was evaluated using Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2). The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and summary area un-der the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) were calculated, and meta-regression analysis was per-formed using a bivariate random effects model through a meta-analysis. Results: Nine original articles with a total of 988 HCCs were included. Most studies had low bias risk and minimal applicability concerns. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUROC of the ADC value were 73%, 70%, and 0.78, respectively. The time interval between the index test and the reference standard was identified as a pos-sible source of heterogeneity by subgroup meta-regression analysis. Conclusions: Meta-analysis showed that the ADC value had moderate accuracy for predicting MVI in HCC. The time interval accounted for the heterogeneity.